International Journal of Armenian Genocide Studies

Introduction: Law, Activism, and the International Recognition of the Armenian Genocide

2025-12-30T20:32:37+00:00

The recognition of the Armenian Genocide stands at the intersection of memory politics, geopolitics, international law, activism, and education. More than a century after the destruction of the Ottoman Armenians, the question of recognition remains not only a moral and historical issue but also a profoundly political, legal, and pedagogical one. Although the facts of the genocide have been firmly established through an extensive body of scholarship, archival documentation, eyewitness accounts, and contemporary diplomatic reporting, the international community has acknowledged these facts unevenly, a dynamic reflected in the growing body of scholarly literature examining recognition processes.

Trapped in Legal Constraints or in States’ Own History? International Law as an Explanation for the Reluctance to Recognize the Armenian Genocide

2025-12-30T21:02:50+00:00

International legal constraints may partly explain states’ reluctance to recognize the 1915 massacres of Armenians as genocide. The principle of non-retroactivity precludes applying the Genocide Convention to events that occurred before its adoption in 1948. Nonetheless, evolving state practice could ultimately lead to a gradual shift toward retrospective application, thereby highlighting the risk that formal recognition might compel states to confront their own colonial or genocidal pasts. A notable correlation thus appears: states that actively engage in reckoning with colonial injustices are more inclined to characterize the Armenian events as genocide, whereas those still entangled in unresolved debates over their colonial or violent histories tend to abstain from recognition. Furthermore, some governments invoke the requirement of a judicial determination of genocide as a precondition for recognition, relying on a supposed legal constraint that, in fact, has no foundation in the Genocide Convention.

In the Legal Limbo? Constitutional Debates on the Recognition of the Armenian Genocide in France

2025-12-30T21:18:15+00:00

This paper revisits the legal debates surrounding the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the French Parliament through the Law of 29 January 2001, as well as the recent challenges brought against this statute. Opponents of this and similar laws have focused heavily on the purported lack of “normativity,” arguing that the Constitution permits only statutes that command or prohibit, not those that merely make declarative statements – such as recognizing a historical event as genocide. The paper advances three main arguments:(1) it is far from evident that the 2001 law recognizing the Armenian Genocide lacks normative value;
(2) even if a statute were non-normative, this would not necessarily render it unconstitutional; and
(3) should such a law be deemed unconstitutional, it would nonetheless remain in a state of “legal limbo,” since its non-normative character precludes any concrete legal consequences.

Bridging Histories: Argentina’s Transitional Justice Process and the Recognition of the Armenian Genocide

2025-12-30T21:32:37+00:00

This article analyzes how the Argentine Transitional Justice Process (ATJP) enabled the judicial recognition of the Armenian Genocide through domestic mechanisms anchored in international human rights law. Argentina’s determination in the Armenian Genocide Truth Trial (2001–2011) constitutes the first and most rigorous judicial finding on the genocide by any national court, grounded not in memory politics or diplomatic pressures but in binding legal standards. The article examines how an Argentine federal chamber upheld the right to truth of a descendant of genocide survivors and applied the principle of inapplicability of statute of limitations to state-denied genocidal crimes, issuing an unprecedented ruling despite the absence of an accused before the court. This decision shows that when international or diplomatic routes are blocked, domestic courts can still give effect to international legal norms, especially when backed by sustained civil society engagement. The emphasis is on the transnational application of Argentine jurisprudence to historical atrocities, while selectively referencing Argentina’s broader experience in prosecuting crimes against humanity, including the 1985 Juntas Trial and the ESMA III-Death Flight Section Trial. The article asserts that Argentina’s definition of the right to truth as an independent legal obligation, conceptualized by Juan E. Méndez and implemented via truth trials, and the intertwined adoption of the five pillars of transitional justice mechanisms (truth justice reparations memory and guarantees of non-recurrence), provides a persuasive avenue for enhancing genocide recognition through legal innovation. The study posits that by positioning domestic adjudication as a venue for global norm creation, Argentina’s methodology bolsters the international human rights framework, challenges denialism, and underscores the legal importance of remembrance following mass atrocities.

Academic Activism and Armenian Genocide Recognition in Australia

2025-12-31T14:09:18+00:00

This article draws on the author’s firsthand experience of lobbying the Australian federal government to recognize the Armenian Genocide. The article explores the history of Armenian Genocide recognition in Australia and the issues surrounding such recognition. It analyzes the geopolitical and historical issues that seem to present a barrier to the Australian federal government recognizing the Armenian Genocide, such as the specifics of Australia’s relationship with Turkey, which date back to World War I and the Gallipoli campaign of 1915. The significance of Gallipoli in Australian military history and culture and how it impacts Australian recognition of the Armenian Genocide will be examined. The article also discusses the work being done to overcome these barriers through the “Joint Justice Initiative” that the author participates in. This paper highlights how academic research and scholarship contribute to this work, situating this advocacy in the realm of academic-activism, demonstrating that academia is a crucial and active participant in activism that seeks to bring about social and political change.

The Armenian Model: The Recognition of Genocides in France

2025-12-31T14:17:27+00:00

This contribution examines how the Armenian Genocide was officially recognized in France and explores the consequences of this recognition. Drawing on draft laws, parliamentary motions, enacted legislation, and presidential speeches, we analyze the political and legal dynamics that shaped this process. Our findings suggest that the French recognition of the Armenian Genocide exerted a significant influence on subsequent recognitions of other genocides, helping to usher in a broader era conducive to formal acknowledgment of mass atrocities.

When Armenians Take to the Streets: The 1979 March from Lyon and the Struggle for Genocide Recognition in France

2025-12-31T14:24:40+00:00

This article examines how and why French Armenian activists mobilized around the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in late 1970s France. It suggests that Armenian street protests had a performative impact, consistently inserting the genocide issue into the French public sphere through a transnational repertoire of activism. These actions reflected overlapping identities, French, Armenian, diasporic, and global, and demonstrated how diasporic communities respond to both local and international events. By situating the Armenian case within the broader protest culture of the 1970s, the article highlights the value of using connected histories and multiple chronologies to understand diasporic political engagement.